The rental delinificness It has reached maximum in 2024, as well as the price of housing, which stood on average at 1,117 euros per month. These are the results that the report shows Money situation in 2024made by the rental observatory, which sets the average delinquency in Spain in 7,957.6 euros. The figure is a 4.23 % increase With respect to the previous year, which is equivalent to about seven months of rent. The situation, however, is not homogeneous throughout the Spanish territory.
Tenants allocate 34 % of their income to the payment of the rent, exceeding 39 % in some provinces, a proportion that is well above the level recommended by the experts. According to the Observatory, “the problems to access a home” and “the pricing escalation above wages” explain the difficulties that many tenants face. In this context, delinquency maintains the upward trend recorded in recent years, although at a lower pace due to the reduction in the number of rented housing.
However, they exist Great differences between autonomous communities: While in Catalonia the average debt exceeds 10,900 euros, in Extremadura the tenants owe less than 3,300 euros.
More debt in the most tensioning areas
As the study shows, the highest levels of debt are found in the most tension areas, that is, in those where rental prices are higher: Catalonia (10,996 euros), Balearic Islands (10,233 euros), Madrid (9,812 euros ) and the Basque Country (8,372 euros). The province of Barcelona stands out especially, with a maximum of 13,419 euros.
“A pattern is usually repeated and it is that Some of the autonomous communities with the greatest debt They are found in the areas of Levante and the Islands. These are the most important regions of tourism in their economies, where prices are usually higher and the most unstable work structure, which increases the chances of default, ”they explain from the rental observatory.
At the provincial level, the territories that exceed the National Money Media They are, in addition to Barcelona, Balearic Islands (€ 10,233.66), Guipúzcoa (€ 9,833.71), Madrid (€ 9,812.96), Malaga (€ 9,355.88) and Seville (€ 8,876.03). Vizcaya (€ 7,849.23), Valencia (€ 7,314.15) and Navarra (€ 7,012.06), which are located above 7,000 euros of medium debt.
A close relationship between delinquency and financial effort
According to the report, there is a very close relationship between average delinquency and the financial effort made by tenants in each province to pay the rent.
“In general, those areas where tenants dedicate most of their income to rent coincide with those that present a higher level of indebtedness,” summary from the rental observatory. And they add that, in the ten provinces where tenants allocate more than 35 % of their income to rent, the delinquency exceeds 6,000 euros on average (with the exception of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which is approaching this amount). In fact, the three provinces with more debt – Barcelona, Balearic Islands and Guipúzcoa – are also those that record a greater financial effort.
“In the same way, the provinces where tenants owe less amounts of average coincide, in general, with those where they dedicate less than 30% of their income to pay the rent,” they point out. A percentage that, according to experts, is the maximum that an individual should dedicate to paying the rent.